League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol 2 3

"And the Dawn Comes Up Like Thunder": The League is roused by the sound of cannons and go stand out front of their inn. It seems the second cylinder fell on a golf course in Surrey, and the troops at Horsell Common are shelling it. As the league watch, most of the troops are destroyed by the a

Synopsis for "And the Dawn Comes Up Like Thunder"

The League is roused by the sound of cannons and go stand out front of their inn. It seems the second cylinder fell on a golf course in Surrey, and the troops at Horsell Common are shelling it. As the league watch, most of the troops are destroyed by the alien's heat ray, along with the cannons. The heat ray also destroys the inn that the League was staying in. If they had remained inside any longer, they too would be dead. A coach arrives, the driver telling the group he was tasked with bringing them back to London if the situation worsened. The League board the coach and begin the trip back to London. During the ride, Wilhelmina Murray gets the feeling that not everyone in the group will survive this mission.

Back in London, the League meet with Campion Bond and Mycroft Holmes and are asked not to mention alien invasion, so as not to cause a panic among the general public. For the moment, the League is tasked with returning to Horsell and observing the aliens as well as researching Mars. Bond gives Mina secret war plans and asks her to study them. Because they are returning to Horsell in the morning, Captain Nemo, Edward Hyde and Allan Quatermain decide to go out on the town. While out on a roadway, the three men and their driver discover an alien tripod outside the crater. They rush back to London to warn Military Intelligence.

Back at base in London, Mina is reading about Mars and gets up for a break. She discovers Hawley Griffin, fully invisible, reading the secret plans that were given to her by Bond. She confronts Griffin, who still invisible, beats her until she throws up. He then pushes her face in the sick, knocks hero out and leaves. The rest of the League return and Hyde discovers the unconscious Mina. Due to his sense of smell, Hyde immediately determines that Griffin is responsible for Mina's current condition. Bond discusses Griffin's betrayal and their plans with the other members of the League. Hyde and Nemo are to take refuge in Nemo's submarine, the Nautilus. Quatermain and Mina are put on a train, sent to South Downs to contact a scientist who may be able to help. While on the train, Mina sees a third cylinder streaking through the sky.

Notes

This book was first published on September 25, 2002.

"And the Dawn Comes Up Like Thunder" is a passage from Rudyard Kipling's "Mandalay," from his Barrack-Room Ballads (1892).

The timing of the shelling of the first Martian craft is a slight discrepancy between the chronologies of League and The War of the Worlds, in which the shelling happened in Chapter Nine, Saturday night, "about six in the evening."

William Samson Senior is a non-literary character and is not established as the senior father of Bill Sampson (often shown as "Samson"), "the Wolf of Kabul", who appeared in the British comics Wizard and Hotspur. Allan Moore is taking creative license by creating Samson Senior and his family relation with the Wold of Kabul. Moore said that the timing was right for the Wolf's father to have fought against the forces of the Mad Mahdi (see below).

The "Mad Mahdi" is further mentioned in this issue in comparison to the Martian invasion, in which Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad (1844-1885), the Muslim religious leader of a movement against the Egyptians ruling the Mahdi's native Sudan. This goal brought the Mahdi into conflict with British forces, which led to the Battle of El Obeid, on 5 November 1883, in which the Mahdi's forces completely wiped out an Egyptian force led by General William Hicks. This defeat was shocking to the British public, as was the defeat six weeks later of another Egyptian force led by the British rogue Valentine Baker, but neither horrified Britain so badly as the taking of Khartoum on January 26, 1885, in which General "Chinese" Gordon and the entire British garrison of Khartoum were massacred.

Trivia

Maybury, the town where the League were passing, is the home of the narrator from The War of the Worlds.

In the British Museum that follows are:

The giant humanoid skeleton is from the Edward Lear limerick, "An Old Man of Colblenz" which first appears in Lear's A Book of Nonsense (1846).

A stature of Dr. Syn from Russell Thornedike's Doctor Syn (1915), who was also a member of the 18th century League.

A preserve coffin of José da Silvestra, the Portuguese explorer who in 1590 discovered the mines of King Solomon in H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines (1885), the novel which introduced Allan Quatermain.

A bust of Sir Percy Blakeney, aka the Scarlet Pimpernel, from Baroness Emmuska Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905). Sir Blakeney was also a member of the 18th century League.

Mycroft Holmes's warnings against mentioning the word `invasion' as the 'panic alone could kill hundreds' is maybe reference to the 1938 Orson Welles radio adaption of WotW, whose broadcast caused panic among some listeners.

Mina Murray is looking at a death mask of Napoleon Bonaparte. The hat in the case is similar to the one Napoleon is traditionally shown wearing, and it has a "6" in the middle, a reference to the Sherlock Holmes story, "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons".

The books about Mars, that was read by Mina Murray, are a reference to Arnould Galopin's Le Docteur Oméga - Aventures Fantastiques de Trois Français dans la Planète Mars (Dr. Omega - Fantastic Adventures Of Three Frenchmen On Planet Mars, 1905). Le Docteur Oméga was about Doctor Omega, an inventor-adventurer, who goes to Mars and fights various Martians.

The "Eyes Only - Docteur Omega" sheet, with "J.M. Lofficier" on the bottom, is another reference to Le Docteur Oméga. "J.M. Lofficier" is a reference to Jean-Marc Lofficier, who is a friend of Kevin O'Neill and suggested several characters for inclusion or mention in League Vol 2.

Mina's instability to write Griffin's name is reminiscent of a similar moment in Dracula, in Chapter 27, after she has been bitten.

The text panel at the end of the issue is a reference to British politics, in which it reference to the 2002 controversial proposal by the British Home Secretary, David Blunkett, who proposed that all immigrants living in England should be forced to take a citizen test and to speak English rather than their native tongue, even in their own homes. And as well to a 1992 Tory Party conference speech by John Major in which, while evoking a nakedly nostalgic and pastoral image of England, he mentioned an old maid cycling to Evensong.